All eyes will turn to the west

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Five marginal seats in Western Australia will be crucial if the eastern states produce a cliffhanger result.

WA state director of the Liberal Party Paul Everingham told The Age the coalition could lose the NSW seats of Richmond, Eden-Monaro and Dobell and Adelaide in SA and it was unlikely to win any seats in Tasmania.

This could that make the five marginals in WA crucial if the eastern states produce a cliffhanger.

"It'll be interesting on the night over here," Mr Everingham said. WA voting closes two hours after the rest of the nation.

Mr Everingham said he was optimistic of holding the state's two Liberal marginals of Kalgoorlie (4.3 per cent) and Canning (0.4) and hoped to win Hasluck and Stirling from Labor, where it needs 1.8 and 1.6 swings respectively. The third Labor marginal, Swan (2), would be more difficult.

Labor hopes to take Canning off the Liberals and Labor's defence spokesman Kim Beazley said anyone who predicted the result in the massive Kalgoorlie electorate was very brave.

Polling was difficult because about 15,000 people there did not have phones.

With a state election due in December, federal Labor is burdened by state issues. Labor's plan to beat the Coalition in marginals across Australia includes a big push to take back Canning and Kalgoorlie.

Nurses and doctors campaigning hard against the ALP have cast a long shadow over the party's hopes.

Several hundred nurses from Perth public hospitals who have been involved in a pay dispute with the state Labor Government voted this week to draw attention to their campaign by turning up at ballot boxes in key marginal seats to protest against federal Labor on election day. Australian Nursing Federation state secretary Mark Olson warned bluntly: "If you're a Labor member and you're in a marginal seat I'd be worried - we're on our way."

To add to federal Labor's health problems, the conservative local branch of the Australian Medical Association ran newspaper advertisements campaigning against plans by "Labor and the Greens" to take away the Medicare safety net.

Fate has also been unkind. Jane Gerick won Canning for Labor in 1998 only to lose it in 2001 after a redistribution. She won a battle with leukaemia and was endorsed once more for 2004 but died suddenly on Christmas Day.

She was replaced by Cimlie Bowden, whose unhappy campaign ended abruptly in August when she stepped aside. Former WA government minister Kay Hallahan was recruited to step into the breach.

Then Labor's candidate for Kalgoorlie, Kevin Richards, died suddenly in September. The ALP swung in State Government minister Tom Stephens.

The Liberals had problems of their own in Stirling.

Their first candidate, Paul Afkos, was disendorsed after his name was linked in court to that of a convicted drug dealer. He has been replaced by Michael Keenan, a smart young candidate, who is given a good chance of winning.